CRAIG BROWN was the last Scotland manager to beat England at Wembley. And last night he revealed he had deliberately targeted Gareth Southgate to get the win.

Brown, now 76, was Scotland's coach for eight years, and was in charge on November 1999 when his side beat Kevin Keegan's England 1-0 through Don Hutchison's headed goal.

Brown's team had already lost the first leg of the Euro 2000 qualifying play-off 2-0 in Glasgow, so Keegan's team went through to the finals on aggregate.

But the win at Wembley - the last time the Scots beat the Auld Enemy and the last competitive clash between the two countries - restored pride and was wildly celebrated.

Brown, now a non-executive director at Aberdeen, believes the FA should have given the England job to interim manager Gareth Southgate before now. The job will be his almost certainly barring a disaster against Gordon Strachan's team.

To not give him the job would be, according to Brown, a blunder as big as Keegan made in naming his team before the second leg.

"I have immense respect for Gareth as a manager and as a player. But we knew he was a footballer, not a hard man. So I put Don Hutchison up front with orders to put it about a bit. Don was, how shall we say, a competitor. I told Don to get about him.

"I told our goalkeeper, Neil Sullivan, to put all his kicks towards Southgate, not towards Tony Adams. And then Don could get stuck in.

"It worked a treat, because Don scored the winning goal. But Keegan had done us a favour by naming his team.

"We played well that night, Barry Ferguson ran the game for us at the age of 21, and we could have won by more - Christian Dailly had a header very well saved by David Seaman at the end.

England train at St George's Park before Scotland clash

Tue, November 8, 2016

England have been training at St George's Park ahead of their match against Scotland on Friday

Chelsea and Southampton youngsters Nathaniel Chalobah, James Ward-Prowse and Nathan Redmond have joined the England senior squad in training

"England went through, but that win kept me in the job for a bit. I was under a lot of pressure, and the word was if we had lost that match I could have gone.

"I remember at the team hotel in Troon the TV crew did a piece on me outside the hotel, and deliberately in the background was the name of the road the hotel was on - Craigsend Road!"

Brown added: "I am surprised England have not given Gareth the job. He is a good manager and a good guy. The players respect him.

"With a temporary coach I believe there is something in the subconscious of players that tells them, 'If we lose it doesn't matter because the next guy will pick me'.

"If he is a permanent boss the players aren't so sure, because if they lose he could change the team around and they could be out.

GETTY

Gareth Southgate battling for the posession with Don Hutchison in Scotland's 1-0 win over England

GETTY

Scotland striker Don Hutchison scoring from a header in the 1-0 win over England at Wembley in 1999

"Now this looks like the most important game of Gareth's career, so his chance of the job is in jeopardy. Give him the job and settle it."

Brown believes the Scotland team he put out against England in 1999 with Hutchison, Ferguson, Colin Hendry, David Weir and John Collins, was stronger than the side Strachan will field at Wembley tomorrow.

But he is convinced that England, despite three unbeaten games since the debacle that was Euro 2016, are still suffering from a hangover from the disastrous last-16 defeat to Iceland which heralded the end for previous coach Roy Hodgson.

"I am not so sure England have recovered from that game and that result," said Brown. "That game proved that this England team are fallible.

"They had been good in qualifying, but that result killed Roy off. If I was Gordon Strachan tomorrow night I would be saying to that Scotland team, 'If Iceland can do it, so can we'."